209 Wangwang
Jingjing took the exam three times before finally passing. Her neighbors in Ginkgo Hutong whispered among themselves that it was the least of her worries. The neighbors in the new residential compound, on the other hand, said it directly to her face and mentioned it all the time.
Guan Jianguo and Lin Yufeng were finally able to hold their heads high, which is why they chose to hold their banquet in the family compound. Their voices grew louder and louder, and they never seemed to quiet down.
Not only the couple, but Guan Canghai and Jiang Guiying also wandered around the new family compound early in the morning, chatting with everyone they met. They were not modest at all, practically wearing "My granddaughter got into university" on their foreheads.
Guan Yuehe was enjoying herself when she turned her head and suddenly made eye contact with the person at the next table.
On the left are my sister-in-law's relatives from her maternal side, and on the right are her maternal grandparents and their extended family.
Some familiar faces have grown old, and some unfamiliar faces have appeared. But they seem to have nothing to do with her anymore.
"The food is served. Please move over if you need to."
Guan Yuehe immediately looked away, pulled Lin Ting out of the group of children, helped her wash her hands, and then pressed her firmly onto the stool, waiting for dinner to be served.
After leaving the banquet at the new family compound, Lin Ting sat on the back of the motorcycle, hugging her tightly, swinging his legs excitedly, and shouting, "Mom, hurry up! Let's go get Wangwang and take him home!"
"Wangwang" is the name Lin Ting gave her puppy. These past few days, the name Lin Ting has been using the most is "Wangwang".
Lin Ting finally took the puppy away, and Grandpa Quan finally relaxed completely.
After watching the mother and daughter leave the courtyard, Grandpa Quan turned to his wife and said, "She and Yiku have the same bad temper."
A puppy was added to the family, and Gu Yu was attracted by the puppy.
To play with the puppy, Gu Yu will be staying at her aunt's house for the next few days of school.
The day before school started, Gu Yu was still dragged home by her parents.
Gu Yu tried to negotiate with Grandpa Quan to buy a puppy with her pocket money, but he refused. Gu Yu then clung to Guan Yuehe's leg, crying and saying she refused to go back.
When Guan Yuehe met Guan Yuehua's angry eyes, she didn't dare to say generously, "Auntie will buy you one."
"Poor Guyu," Lin Ting said, stroking Wangwang's head. After thinking for a moment, she added, "Sister Juanjuan is also very pitiful."
Today, Guan Weiguo sent Juanjuan to Ginkgo Alley, along with her quilts and clothes for all four seasons.
She was fine when she first arrived, but as soon as Guan Weiguo left the alley, Juanjuan turned around and wiped away her tears.
The next day, the poor guy became Lin Ting.
"No! Grandma, I don't want to go to school!" Lin Ting woke up to find herself being told to go to the preschool class. She tried to hide under the covers, but her grandma caught her.
“If you don’t go to school, you’ll be illiterate. Look at your other kids, they’re all in preschool this year, no one will play with you in the alley.” Jiang Guiying kept talking, and her hands moved even faster, quickly changing Lin Ting’s clothes, then carrying him out the door. “In two more years, Grandma won’t be able to carry you anymore, oh my, you little chubby boy, you’re so heavy…”
Knowing that she had to go to school today, Lin Ting tried to coax her, "Grandma, I'll take Wangwang to school."
"Forget about it. Your mom specifically told you last night to be careful not to hide the puppy in your schoolbag... Let me check your schoolbag, okay, you didn't hide it. Your grandpa has been waiting for you for ages. Alright, go to school now."
Lin Ting's first day of school in the new semester was like a battle.
Aunt Hu got up early and was watching the excitement from the doorway.
Lin Ting was shoved into the back seat of the bicycle, and Guan Canghai pushed off with his foot, riding away.
He had to send Lin Ting to the preschool education class before turning around and opening a shop.
He thought to himself with relief: Luckily, the children in his family are all a few years apart in age. If they were all born together, he really wouldn't dare to imagine it!
—
The new house was finally completed before National Day. Whenever Guan Yuehe and Lin Yiku had time off, they would go over and take a look. Every nook and cranny of the new house was cleaned up. At the same time, they added new furniture little by little, like ants carrying house.
Most of the furniture in the house is in good condition and can easily last another ten or eight years, so there isn't much new furniture to buy.
When Lin Yiku said he could free up the first Sunday of November to rest, Guan Yuehe immediately announced that day was the best day and decided to move on that day.
"So that's next Sunday? Chen Lizhong is off on Sundays, let him come and help out."
Lin Sitian lay lazily on the sofa, looking up at the roof beam. Suddenly she sighed, which made Guan Yuehe turn to look at her: What's wrong?
"We won't be able to meet and chat every day anymore." Lin Sitian has been living in Ginkgo Hutong for the past few months and has been able to meet and chat with Guan Yuehe almost every day. After Guan Yuehe moves away, although it will still be close by, it won't be as convenient to visit each other as it is now.
Guan Yuehe scoffed, "What's the big deal?"
“There’s a spare room at home. If you want to chat with me, you and Chen Lizhong can move in with Xiaoyu.”
Lin Sitian looked up at the window and whispered, "My brother will ask me questions again later."
She then mimicked Lin Yiku's tone, "Are you planning to send me to the storage room again?"
They both laughed at the same time.
There were two knocks on the window, and Lin Yiku reminded Lin Sitian, "I can hear you."
Lin Sitian quickly gave Guan Yuehe a wink, and Lin Yiku got a new task: to go to the alley entrance and bring Lin Ting and Wangwang home.
"You're the one who should teach him a lesson!" As soon as the person left, Lin Sitian became smug again.
"Hey, should we call Lao Ding and Lao Xu?"
"Let's call them tomorrow," Guan Yuehe couldn't help but say. "Or maybe we should just call them by their names; it sounds so old-fashioned!"
Although we're all getting on in years, almost forty, we're still young at heart!
"Okay, okay, I'll listen to Xiao Guan." Lin Sitian changed her mind with a smile.
Lin Ting's smiling face was exactly like hers.
"Oh, right." Lin Sitian suddenly remembered the important matter, sat up straight, and cautiously glanced outside before speaking. Guan Yuehe consciously leaned closer to listen.
“One of the older women in our department is a neighbor of Xiujuan’s parents. Xiujuan’s parents want Xiujuan to send Yaoyao to a relative’s house in her hometown while she hasn’t registered Yaoyao’s household registration yet, and then have another child. Xiujuan and her parents even had a fight…” Lin Sitian reminded her, “You should mention Yaoyao’s household registration to Aunt Jiang, so that Xiujuan’s parents won’t bring it up again. These kinds of things are easy to bring up, and if you bring them up too often, it will be difficult to explain later.”
The state has strict regulations; public officials are only allowed to have one child, and that's it.
But where there's a policy, there's a countermeasure. Some people, if they have a daughter as their first child, send the child to relatives in the countryside, and if they have a son later, they only register the son's household registration.
Some heartless people deliberately abort children so they can have an extra birth quota.
She'd seen it all at the hospital; some young people were easily swayed and couldn't resist the older woman's constant nagging.
Fortunately, their neighbors in Ginkgo Alley were alright; at least they wouldn't say things like "it's bad for someone to have a daughter" to their face.
After all, many families in the alley have only one daughter, and most of the families that are particularly known for their tough and aggressive nature have only one daughter.
"However, just casually ask if Yao Yao has registered her household yet. Don't blatantly remind them to register her household soon. What if the couple has other ideas? Wouldn't you be doing something wrong?" Lin Sitian reminded her worriedly.
Like them, once they decide on their child's name, they quickly go and register the child's household registration.
Yao Yao is only half a month younger than Chen Yu, and it's been several months since she was registered. What if the young couple has other ideas?
It's no wonder she overthinks things. Anyone who encounters so many cases of "only wanting sons and not daughters" in the hospital every day would start to overthink.
Guan Yuehe clicked her tongue. "I know, I'm not stupid."
"That's how it is when siblings get married; if not handled properly, the relationship will become strained."
Lin Sitian suddenly said with a happy smile, "It's good that you're my sister-in-law. Oh, I used to be really afraid that my brother would find me a difficult sister-in-law."
Guan Yuehe laughed heartily; she knew all too well. The two of them had spent countless hours lying on the same kang (heated brick bed) sighing and lamenting.
Two days later, when Guan Yuehe went to pick up Lin Ting from No. 3 Courtyard after get off work, she saw that the whole family was there, so she stayed a little longer.
“A colleague of mine didn’t pay attention when registering his child’s household registration. It wasn’t until six months later that he discovered the child’s name was wrong. Not only was the name wrong, but the surname was also incorrect.”
After saying that, he reminded Guan Aiguo and Wan Xiujuan, "Be careful when you register Yao Yao's household registration. It's best to write down the name beforehand so that the staff can register it accordingly, so that if they register it wrong, it won't be easy to correct."
Guan Yuehe started the conversation, and the rest of the family joined in.
"We need to be careful. Some staff members misunderstood and filled in the information randomly without asking questions."
Guan Canghai then told them the origin of his and his siblings' names: "Back then, an old scholar came to the village to borrow water. My father gave him three steamed buns and asked the old scholar to give the three of us siblings a nice name."
“This name was well-chosen. Back then, the city was recruiting workers from the countryside. I was competing for a position with another older man from the commune who knew how to cut hair. When the comrade in charge of recruitment at the factory saw my name, he assumed I could read and wrote it down, so he hired me. The older man stayed at the commune's barbershop.”
Guan Canghai laughed and said, "I thought we should have recruited that older brother as well. Later, they sent me Old Chen as my partner... Oh dear! What a hardship!"
Those in the know laughed out loud, while only a few younger ones, unaware that Grandpa Chen's haircutting skills were worse than a dog's chewing, could only look on in bewilderment.
A few days later, Guan Aiguo and Wan Xiujuan went to register Yao Yao's household registration.
Upon returning, he said with great relief, "Luckily, we kept an eye on the registrar while they were registering, or they would have registered it as 'shaking one's head'!"
When Wan Xiujuan's parents learned that the couple had registered their child's birth, they were speechless.
Guan Yuehe only mentioned that this matter should be noted when registering a household, and then she didn't pay attention to it anymore.
She wouldn't have known if Jiang Guiying hadn't told her that Yao Yao's household registration had been completed.
I'm busy packing up my things so we can move on Sunday.
"Lin Ting, do you still want your tin frog?"
She rummaged through drawers and cupboards and found a basket full of tin frogs. Guan Yuehe wasn't sure whether to praise her, since all the tin frogs were a gift from Gu Yu, and none of them were bought by Lin Ting.
Lin Ting has only loved her puppy lately and has completely lost interest in the tin frog, so she generously said, "Give them all to the pickled fish!"
Outside, Jiang Guiying couldn't stand it anymore and corrected her, "That nickname is awful! You're not allowed to call me that anymore. You can only call me Little Fish!"
"I know, Grandma!" Lin Ting readily admitted her mistake.
But only the mother knows the truth, and Guan Yuehe bets she'll still call it "pickled fish" next time.
Author's Note: [Dog head with rose in hand]
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